Nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes, and the hotel industry is coughing up a lot of the latter, the American Hotel & Lodging Association reports. In fact, it said, U.S. hotels are projected to generate record levels of federal, state, and local tax revenue this year, while also paying workers historic totals of wages, salaries and other compensation. This is according to state-by-state projections released today by the AHLA.
The data show hotels are projected to generate a total of nearly $83.4 billion in tax revenue in 2024 with California, New York, Nevada, Florida and Texas generating the highest hotel tax revenue in 2024.
Beyond taxes, hotels are projected to pay a record high total of wages, salaries and compensation in 2024—$123.4 billion compared to $118 billion in 2023. Here’s the breakdown among states:
At the same time, nominal hotel guest spending on lodging, transportation, food and beverage, retail and other expenses is expected to reach $758.6 billion in 2024, up nearly 5% from 2023 and almost 24% above 2019 levels.
Though hotels are expected to hire about 45,000 new employees this year, according to the analysis, hotels will still fall about 225,000 jobs short of the nearly 2.37 million people that were employed in 2019. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were still more than 1 million unfilled jobs in leisure and hospitality as of February.
The 10 states expected to have the highest hotel employment levels in 2024 are:
The AHLA noted that the nationwide workforce shortage is making it harder to hire new staff, even with hotels paying near-historic average wages and offering more benefits and flexibility than ever before. In February 2024, national average hotel wages were $23.84 per hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
As of February, there were 8.8 million job openings in the United States and only 6.5 million unemployed people to fill those jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and there are currently more than 80,000 hotel jobs open in the U.S., according to Indeed.
“Historic projections for wage and tax revenue totals point to a strong 2024 for hoteliers. But our industry is facing significant obstacles to growth. These include the ongoing nationwide labor shortage, stubborn inflation and a federal regulatory agenda that threatens future economic expansion,” said AHLA Interim President and CEO Kevin Carey. “AHLA will continue to fight for solutions to these pressing challenges so hoteliers can focus on what they do best: serving guests.”